When Amazon announced its Kindle Fire HD two weeks ago, we all wondered how Barnes & Noble would respond. Turns out, Barnes & Noble has HD plans of its own, and today revealed the Nook HD and Nook HD+.

The Nook HD is a 7-inch tablet that looks a lot like the Nook Tablet, with some notable enhancements. The Nook HD + is a 9-inch tablet that is a direct attack on the Apple iPad. I recently spent some time with both devices, but I will focus on the Nook HD here.

By any measure, Barnes & Noble was a pioneer in the 7-inch Android tablet space. The Nook Color, and later the Nook Tablet, sold better than any other Android tablet. Granted, that isn't saying much. With the Nook HD, Barnes & Noble hopes to build on its success by building the thinnest, most powerful, highest resolution 7-inch tablet on the market.

The first thing you notice about the Nook HD is that it looks like a Nook. It isn't easy to differentiate among 7-inch slabs, but Barnes & Noble has paid attention to the details. Whereas most of the market goes for edge-to-edge glass, the Nook HD has a small bezel, which gives you something for your fingers to grasp. Likewise, the recessed back gives your hand little extra purchase. The rubber-soft paint on the back of the device makes it feel more secure in your hand. Bill Lynch, Barnes & Noble's CEO, told me that this paint added 5 grams (!) to the weight of the device but that the extra touchability was worth it.

Rubber-softy-paint and all, at 11.1 ounces (315 grams) the Nook HD is still noticeably lighter than the Kindle Fire HD. The device measures 9.5 x 6.4 x 0.45 inches. And, despite its bezel, it is about half an inch narrower than the Fire HD, making it easier to grip in one hand.

Barnes & Noble is confident that it has a better screen than the Kindle HD - so confident, in fact, that it put the two products side-by-side at their launch presentation. We do this in the PCMag Lab when we test, but it is rare for a vendor to do it at a product launch. Looking at the two screens, the Nook appeared brighter and perhaps a bit sharper. Just going by numbers, the Nook indeed has an edge. The Nook HD has a 1,440-by-900 resolution creating 243 pixels per inch. By comparison, the Kindle Fire HD and Google Nexus 7 have 1,280-by-800 resolution screens.

The Nook HD uses 1GB of RAM and an OMAP 4470 1.3-GHz CPU, which should make it faster than either the Kindle Fire HD or Google Nexus 7. Barnes & Noble claims that when it comes to graphics processing, it will be 80 percent faster. We will have to benchmark it to be sure, but in using the device, the interface certainly seemed smooth enough. I was able to open magazines and view rich pages without any lag time, and the device was able to play 720p video without choking.

Although I wasn't able to spend a lot of time with the user interface, Barnes & Noble has upgraded that as well. The biggest change is the creation of Nook profiles. Turn the Nook on, and you can choose up to six profiles. Each profile comes with a set of content restrictions, so you can create profiles for your kids that include your copies of Thomas the Tank Engine and don't show them you copy of 50 Shades of Grey. Every time you buy new content, including movies, you can set what profiles can access it. I wasn't able to test this thoroughly, but the functionality seemed to work well.

The Nook software bundle is still 25 days away from being final, so it is hard to complain about minor software bugs at this point. Likewise, my limited time with the device means I can't say much about the battery life. The company claims it can get 10.5 hours of reading time and 9.5 hours of 720p video playback. We will have to get units into the Lab for find out for sure.

The Nook HD is available in 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($229) capacities for pre-order now. It will ship in late October.

Dan Costa is the Editor-in-Chief of PCMag.com and the Senior Vice President of Content for Ziff-Davis. He oversees the editorial operations for PCMag.com, Geek.com, ExtremeTech.com as well as PCMag's network of blogs, including AppScout and SecurityWatch. Dan makes frequent appearances on local, national, and international news programs, including CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ABC, and NBC where he shares his perspective on a variety of technology trends.
Dan began working at PC Magazine in 2005 as a senior editor, covering consumer electronics, blogging on Gearlog.com, and serving as...
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